De Leon: Puerto Rico are assembling an exciting team
The promising Puerto Rico winger looks ahead to the FIFA Series before sharing his dreams of lining up on the biggest stage of all in 2030.
- Puerto Rico preparing for FIFA Series clash with Guam
- De Leon will be looking to enhance his growing reputation
- Attacking star has proved a lucky charm for Real Madrid
Puerto Rico are finalising their preparations for Wednesday's FIFA Series 2026™ semi-final showdown against Guam on home soil. El Huracan Azul will be looking to whip up a storm in their first fixture of the year as they seek to set up a meeting with the winners of the encounter between American Samoa and the US Virgin Islands on Saturday.
The Caribbean nation's bid to qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ came to an agonising end last June, when they fell a single point shy of advancing to the third round of the Concacaf qualifiers, with fresh-faced attacking sensation Jeremy de Leon missing the final two games of the four-match campaign after suffering a shoulder injury.
The skilful 22-year-old Real Madrid Castilla marvel, who is currently on loan at Spanish third-tier side Hercules, took some time out of his busy schedule to sit down with FIFA ahead of his bid to build on his burgeoning reputation.
A young team on the up
Puerto Rico have never graced the FIFA World Cup™. On the road to this year’s edition, they waged an intense battle with El Salvador and Suriname for a place in the final qualifying round. Although they ultimately came up just short, Los Boricuas have a strong young contingent who will be eager to show exactly what they are capable of in front of their fans in the FIFA Series. “We’re very excited about playing on home soil, and our preparations have gone really well,” assured De Leon.
Unsurprisingly, talk of the 2030 instalment of FIFA’s flagship men’s competition drew a broad smile from the attacking livewire: “We all dream about qualifying. That’s what we’re going to be working towards. I think we’re very much on the right track, and we’ll being taking things one step at a time and see if we can achieve that goal.”
No fewer than 18 members of the Puerto Rico squad gearing up for the semi-final match-up against Guam were born this millennium: “This is a really talented generation with some great players. We’re going about things in the right way and assembling a really exciting team,” enthused the jet-heeled flanker.
The attacking ace, who came to Los Blancos’ attention following his dazzling displays for Castellon, already has some experience with the senior national team, including having featured in a pair of their World Cup 2026 qualifying bouts. Injury ruled him out of last June’s crunch double-header, with the game changer’s two appearances coming in his debut in the trip to El Salvador and a two-goal outing in the 8-0 annihilation of Anguilla at the Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel (the venue for the FIFA Series on Puerto Rican soil).
“My debut against El Salvador was so special. It was a big game and tough going, but we stood up and were counted. Then in the match against Anguilla, I got my name on the scoresheet, which was brilliant, especially to do it on home turf. That’s what it’s all about,” the wideman beamed.
Overcoming obstacles with hard work and talent
De Leon, who was born in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan on 18 March 2004, has followed a similar path to many other budding footballers. He stood out as a fledgling, attracting suitors from a handful of the game’s heavyweights – he had trials at Sevilla and Atletico Madrid – and was lucky enough to go on to join one of the best clubs in the world.
While none of this is particularly out of the ordinary, the Puerto Rican prodigy’s journey took an unexpected turn at the back end of the 2023/24 season, when he ended up acting as Real Madrid’s lucky charm in their conquest of the UEFA Champions League trophy. Despite not being able to play in the competition as he was not registered in the Spanish capital club’s squad, Carlo Ancelotti included him in the travelling party for the second leg of the quarter-final tussle against Manchester City.
De Leon, who was recommended as a suitable candidate by Castilla coach Raul on account of his work ethic and talent, was tasked with bolstering the numbers in training. Los Merengues’ shoot-out success at the Etihad Stadium meant that he was called up again for the last-four tie against Bayern Munich, as well as for the showpiece against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley. Being put through your paces in a first-team training session, rubbing shoulders with the members of a star-studded dressing room and being one of the side’s key cheerleaders aren’t the sort of things you forget in a hurry.
“Being in the thick of things at the very highest level meant the world to me at the time. It was only after the event that it all sunk in. It was amazing to be able to spend that time with the players, and all the more so because it was at Real Madrid,” recalled De Leon.
For a player who had barely turned 20 years of age to be getting a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it takes to win Europe’s most coveted club crown was not bad going at all. “To begin with, it was all a bit strange for me because of the players I was mixing with, but I felt like part of the team. We were like a family, and I got on well with everyone.”
Neymar, Messi and World Cup allegiances
The Hercules speedster’s earliest World Cup recollections date back to the 2014 edition in Brazil, which for him is synonymous with one name: “My first memories of the World Cup are from 2014. Neymar was the one who made me fall in love with football. And to top things off, he was playing in his own backyard.”
One legend of the game whom he has had the chance to pit his wits against is Lionel Messi. Puerto Rico locked horns with Argentina in a friendly in the United States on 15 October last year. Although the reigning world champions ran out 6-0 winners, the occasion made quite the mark on De Leon.
“It was amazing and right up there with my experiences in the Champions League. We didn’t really understand the magnitude of it until afterwards. It was so special,” concluded the rising star, who knows exactly who he will be cheering for during the North American showpiece: “Given that Puerto Rico aren’t involved, I’ll be rooting for Spain.”